Today in 1946, the Night of the Bridges took place in Mandatory Palestine.
The new global situation created by World War II and the exposure of the horrors of the Holocaust gave the leaders of the Jewish community a strong sense of “now or never”, and diplomatic efforts to end the Mandate and establish a Jewish state became intensive. Even in the military aspect, the Yeshuv succeeded in creating a unified front with the establishment of the “Hebrew Resistance Movement,” a roof organization that included all the underground movements and coordinated their actions. In June 1946, the movement (and especially the Palmach) issued the most significant underground operation to date, in protest against the restrictive immigration policy that the British led against Holocaust survivors: The bombing of 11 bridges across the country, to cut it off of its neighbors and to damage the British army and its transports. The operation was carried out in one night, called the Night of the Bridges, and passed successfully, except on the A-Ziv Bridge (which passed over Nahal Kazib), where the explosive device exploded too early and killed 14 Palmach fighters. The operation gained international acclaim and caused significant economic and moral damage to the British, who realized that the credit given to them following the war against the Nazis had ended, and now the entire Jewish community was directed against them.
Photo – Wikipedia
